Snakehead tank?

[vinz]

Split from PlantBrain's Gar thread...

[quote:7a08d6c2ab="GaspingGurami"]...

Vinz, I used to keep a snakehead when I was a kid back in the 70s. Unless you have a very thick glass, be prepared to see it broken wnen you throw in live food. I had a cement tank made (cement on 3 sides, with a cement frame in the front and perspex instead of glass) I dun think you can find these tanks now-a-days. Maybe in Malaysia.

Don't put too much water or the snakehead tends to jump out. I put 6 inches of water and had a hollow half log for it to hide.

BTW if it takes hold of your finger, dun pull, the teeth hidden beneath the gums are hooked inward. Get someone to open the mouth for you Ouch. [/quote:7a08d6c2ab]

Lawrence,

Which species did you keep? I was thinking of the smaller ones like C. orientalis, C. bleheri and C. gachua. I've yet to do the research. I'm not quite sure why the idea popped in my head though.

Here's a C. bleheri:


More snakehead info at http://www.snakeheads.org/ although lots of it is in German (I think).

[GaspingGurami]

Wow Vinz,

That blehri is a really nice snakehead.

I kept those big types like the Haruan (dunno the latin for it), Toman C.micropeltes and Bujuk C.pleurophthalma. They were normally acquired from our fishing trips.

I remember a toman I had that grew to around 3 feet long and had to be moved from its tank into our fishpond. There, it grew even bigger as it fed on the pond's smaller inhabitants. We fed it with 2-spot guramis, and once a month, it gets a duckling for a treat.

When my granny decided to slaughter it one day, I just couldn't eat it.

[Fei Miao]

Vinz,

will it be a biotope tank for the snakeheads? that would be interesting

[vinz]

Lawrence, Those are monsters!

Just found out there's a smaller Channa, which currently is currently called the C. bheleri "blue" which I suspect is the one in the picture. It might be a different species altogether. See http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...Snakehead.html. It gives a new meaning to the term Assam fish... :P

Fei Miao, not sure if I will do a biotope. First I got to see if the basic idea is trouble-free enough. Plus I will need to revamp one of my other tanks for this idea and it still has small fishes which I'm not prepared to give up.

[GaspingGurami]

[quote:5388e7923b="vinz"]Lawrence, Those are monsters!

Just found out there's a smaller Channa, which currently is currently called the C. bheleri "blue" which I suspect is the one in the picture. It might be a different species altogether. See http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...Snakehead.html. It gives a new meaning to the term Assam fish... :P

Fei Miao, not sure if I will do a biotope. First I got to see if the basic idea is trouble-free enough. Plus I will need to revamp one of my other tanks for this idea and it still has small fishes which I'm not prepared to give up.[/quote:5388e7923b]

Yes the Toman can be monster brutes. I've fished them in lake Temeggor in northern Malaysia, and at times I get to pull in a 15kg piece. At those weights, they are black with irridiscent purple tiger-stripes on their sides. Very beautiful. Needs very soft, acidic, old water to get that colour. Along the shores of the lake, there is rumoured a legend of a monstor toman that will snatch kids swimming in the water and swallow them whole! But the Alligator gar of Texas is a much bigger fish. Together with the Arapaima giga they make some real conversation pieces if your villa can spare the space.

The linked article mentioned good filtration. IME, my snakeheads prefer still, un-aerated waters, that are old and tainted with tannin. Lots of stumps and hollow logs are good. Cool water and dim lights preferred. I used to cover the pond with water hyacinth and water lettuce. Feeding is best observed at dawn and dusk. They are ambush predators and would shoot out of their log at a gasping gurami on the surface, often breaching the surface like a white shark at seal island. So keep a low water level that they don't pick up too much speed and jump clear of the tank!

Be careful that they will eat almost any fish smaller than them, and attack any weak fish same size as them. I'm not familiar with the assam blue snakehead, but 20cm means to me that they can do a fair amount of mischief to the other inhabitants in their tank if they are haruans or tomans.

I've mixed 1 inch long haruan fries with guppies once. The guppy population kept reducing without a carcass And the Toman is more ferocious of the two and would often attack a haruan

[Heuer]

I have kept Toman before many years back. 2 of them infact. about 1 1/2 ft in lenght. There was once we caught a "soon hock", also about 1 1/2 ft in length. We put this soon hock into the same tank as these toman wanting to get rid of the mud smell before we steam it but the next day, half the soon hock was eaten by the toman. can't believe our eyes.

[GaspingGurami]

[quote:9a898efa61="Heuer"]I have kept Toman before many years back. 2 of them infact. about 1 1/2 ft in lenght. There was once we caught a "soon hock", also about 1 1/2 ft in length. We put this soon hock into the same tank as these toman wanting to get rid of the mud smell before we steam it but the next day, half the soon hock was eaten by the toman. can't believe our eyes. [/quote:9a898efa61]

I think the Toman is now making themselves a nuisance in the rivers and lakes of America. Those poor American Big mouth Basses die oredi also dun know what hit them.

Our reservoirs were onced stocked with Grassie, Kalui, Haruan and Songs. When the Toman came into the picture, these fishes got decimated especially the Haruans which share the same habitat as the Toman -- shallow, sunken logs or lily pads. I understand the PUB introduced Peacock Bass (Cichla temensis, C.orinocensis and the bump headed C.monoculas) to try and even out the one-sided battle.

[GaspingGurami]

Oh, I forgot one thing. If you want your Toman to retain those beautiful black and purple colouration, you must keep it in a dark (blackout) tank. Then when you remove the blinds, the colours are just beautiful. In a brightly lit tank, it tends to lose its colour and is not nice to look at.

[vinz]

Reminds me of an incident I witnessed at the Botanic Gardens.

A school of Toman fries about 2 to 3 inches long each, escorted by 2 adults, one of which was at least 2ft long, were foraging along the banks of the Eco-lake, when the fries swam straight into a swan. The next thing you know, the larger adult charged straight at the swan. The Toman kept going after the swan for about the next 5 mins, ending only when the poor swan got out of the water on to the bank.

[GaspingGurami]

[quote:4b3ab78dcf="vinz"]Reminds me of an incident I witnessed at the Botanic Gardens.

A school of Toman fries about 2 to 3 inches long each, escorted by 2 adults, one of which was at least 2ft long, were foraging along the banks of the Eco-lake, when the fries swam straight into a swan. The next thing you know, the larger adult charged straight at the swan. The Toman kept going after the swan for about the next 5 mins, ending only when the poor swan got out of the water on to the bank.[/quote:4b3ab78dcf]

I've heard of people getting bitten by mother toman because they got too threateningly near the fry. Painful!